Part 3 - The enemy within

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&nbsp &nbsp Statesmen like Roman, Marcus Cicero, warned against the enemy within. He is capable of more damage than the enemy at the gates. The enemy within is more dangerous than the enemy at the gates who carries his banner openly. The enemy within dresses, talks and walks around freely like those around him. He wins their trust and is accepted as one of them! Often, he is clever and better educated and aspires to some leading position in the community.

For the Sikhs today, the enemy within are Sikhs in appearance but who preach Brahmin Snatan Dharam. Their background is the long line of Udasis and Nirmalas who managed to get a foothold in Sikh centres and sangats. The Nirmalas wrote Sikh literature according to own Vedic bias in the 18th and 19th centuries. The enemy within appeared almost as soon a Guru Nanak Sahib passed on the Gurgadhi to Bhai Lehna by anointing him as Guru Angad. Baba Sri Chand, the elder son of the Guru Nanak Sahib started his own cult of opt-out Udasis. Such a sanyasi life-style was more acceptable to the Brahmin who got his first foothold in the Guru family.

Thus started the grand conspiracy to hi-jack the Sikhi of Guru Nanak. To quote a passage from related article by Dr Karminder Singh of Malaysia: The ultimate goal of such a conspiracy is to rob Sikhi of its distinctiveness to assimilate Sikhiinto the larger fold of an antiquated and rejected system to cut the philosophical roots of Sikhiand to undo the 239 years of work []]of interpreting Sikhi] that had been painstakingly undertaken by our Gurus. (The Hijackers of Sikhi** ) In more recent times, the politicised deras and gurudoms have joined forces with the Sant Samaj influential in Sikh central institutions. The process of Sikhi assimilation into Hindutva seems to be nearing completion.

When discussing a Brahmanic Hindu Rashtra which is being forced on all Indian citizens, we need to know more about Hinduism. According to one source, scholars regard Hinduism as a fusion or synthesis (milghoba in Panjabi) of various Indian cultures and traditions, with diverse roots and no founder. It is a web &ndash a jaal - in which the masses have been enmeshed for thousands of years since the times of the Vedas starting about 3,500 years ago. The attempted rationalisation by the later Vedanta (Upnishadic literature) did not clear the web or the thick fog (dhund according to Bhai Gurdas). In fact, the intellectual acrobatics of the Upnishads to authenticate the Vedic mantras, incantations, myths and ritualism further strengthened the Brahmanic hegemony.

The whole Vedic system is designed to keep the Brahmin at the top, controlling both the rulers and the public. That is until the Sikh &ndash the seeker of Truth - came on the scene to challenge the monopoly of the Brahmin. Guru Nanak started his mission by rejecting the jeneu, the sacred thread symbolising high and low castes. The Brahmin never forgot that rejection.

The 550th Guru Nanak Parkash Anniversary gives the enemy within another opportunity to complete the process of assimilation of Sikhi into Hindutva. (Continued)